


Hallelujah

by bangin_patchouli



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Book 2: City of Ashes, F/M, Hallelujah, Kind of angsty, Piano, city of ashes - Freeform, clace, coa, jace playing piano, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2014-11-15
Packaged: 2018-02-25 12:32:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2621870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bangin_patchouli/pseuds/bangin_patchouli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jace is playing the piano and Clary joins him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hallelujah

**Author's Note:**

> This is placed sometime in City of Ashes, when they are " brother and sister ". It might help to listen to the song ( k. d. lang's version ) if you don't know it.

~       Clary heard the piano from down the hall of the Institute. Curious, she flipped the covers off of her body and stepped onto the floor. The floor was cold, as well as the air, and it sent shivers through her. The music stopped, then started over again. _Jace._ Clary knew. Tip toeing down the hall from her make-shift room, she reached the room of which the sound was coming from. Clary peeked through the crack in the door, touching the handle. Jace, in his white night shirt, unbuttoned to the third button, was hitting the keys and mumbling the lyrics under his breath, Clary could see. She couldn't quite tell what song, and she wouldn't have had time to, because Jace flipped the page to a different song. One Clary knew well.

      She opened the door wider and padded in lightly, trying not to make a sound.

     " I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the lord," Jace sang lightly, keeping up with the music." You don't really care for music, do you..." His tone dropped to a whisper. " Well, it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth... " His voice raised." The minor fall, the major lift, the baffled king," his voice lowered again as he slowed his finger movements," composing Hallelujah..." Jace paused. " Hallelujah..." He stopped, looking down, but continuing to play the keys softly and slowly.

      " Hallelujah..." Clary's voice rang higher, yet quietly, against her will. She walked over to the grand piano. Jace looked up at her with tired eyes, yet he seemed unable to sleep.

    " Hallelujah," Their voices played out together, hers higher and his lower. " Hallelujah..."

        _Well your faith was strong but you needed proof..._

      Their eyes met, and Clary took in the angles of his jawline, the dark circles under his eyes from sleepless nights, and his lips. She focused on his lips, the way they sang the lyrics softly in sync with hers.

      _You saw her bathing on the roof. Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you..._

      Jace thought of the night that they had kissed on the green house. He looked at her red, messy curls, tousled with sleep.

      " She tied you to her kitchen chair, she broke your throne and cut your hair," Jace sang, numbly aware that she was staring at him.

      _And from your lips she drew hallelujah..._

      Jace remembered the way her lips felt against his, and the way she'd made his heart beat like a bass drum. He had memorized the softness of her lips and lied to her when he left. He had thought she loved Simon, but now none of that mattered.

      " Hallelujah, hallelujah," Clary mumbled rhythmically, sheepishly.

      _Hallelujah, hallelujah..._

      Jace's fingers moved nimbly against the piano keys, missing no notes.

      " Baby, I've been here before. I've seen this room, and I've walked the floor..." Jace sang, a small grin playing on his lips as he looked up to meet Clary's eyes. " I used to live alone, before I knew you..." The smile left as he looked down at the keys again.

      Clary's voice became louder as she moved her hand to rest gently on the piano. " But I've seen your flag on the marble arch, our love is not a victory march..."

      _It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah..._

      As their eyes drank each other in, filled with longing and forbidden love, their voice matched perfectly. Jace voice chorused the melody as Clary sang the harmony.

      _Hallelujah, hallelujah..._

      Their voices grew with power.

      _Hallelujah..._

_Hallelujah..._

      Jace's fingers moved along the keys, pressing down the keys, making some of the most beautiful sounds that Clary had ever heard, alongside his voice.

      Jace wanted so longingly to pull her into his arms and love her... But it was the way a brother should not.

      " Maybe there's a God above." Jace thought about his disbeliefs. " But all I've ever learned from love, was to shoot somebody who outdrew you..." Clary thought about her hatred toward Valentine and what he'd done to forsake their feelings.

      _It's not a cry you hear at night, it's not someone who's seen the light!_

_It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah!_

      Their voiced grew in volume, full of love and longing, heart and wishing.

      _Hallelujah... Hallelujah... Hallelujah..._

      " Hallelujah!" Jace and Clary's voice rang out as one through the room and out into the hall. It was like an unspoken prayer, hoping to somebody to fix the mess they had been thrown into.

      The piano chords sounded as they decrescendo-ed into the last chorus. _Hallelujah..._  

      Clary murmured the last word, _hallelujah_ , as Jace stood up, sending a pang through her heart. She walked into him, and he pulled her closer against him with his arms. Clary laid her face against his chest as she wrapped her arms gently around his waist. She could feel his heart beating.

      " Oh, darling, I could use one."

     


End file.
